We've seen television shows that swap spouses and now real estate is seeing a new trend in swapping homes online.
Originally, online swapping was for vacation rentals, but with today's market permanent homes are now being exchanged as homeowners are upgrading and downgrading.
The popularity is not only on a local level but state to state as well. Web sites like OnlineHouseTrading.com and GoSwap.org are two of the top sites specializing in this type of transaction.
After having difficulty selling his home in 2006, Sergei Naumov, founded GoSwap.org and the home trading business began.
How the system works is simple. Clients pay a fee to list their homes on these websites allowing others to view photos of their homes for free but when someone has found a house they want to swap they too may be required to pay a fee to obtain the contact information of the seller.
Sergei Naumov has stated that at first GoSwap.org was mainly geared towards hard to sell items like RV's and land, but shortly thereafter homes started to appear in listings.
It should be noted that this type of transaction will never become the standard in home buying and the need for Real Estate Agents will always be there but this is an innovative and creative way for some to buy and sell their homes in this difficult market.